in baking, cooking, eating, kayaking, reading, running, snowshoeing, traveling, and just being me.

June 30, 2010

Not really. I should clean house more often. In my aborted attempt to clean the office, and my more successful attack on kitchen I found monies!

Scratch and Win tickets from Christmas cards, Christmas stocking, birthday cards, and thank you cards. $24.00. Thank you very much.

And some gift cards that we had forgotten about, or in some cases didn't even know we had. The visa cards only have about $3.00 each on them, but that's enough for three black iced tea lemonades at Starbucks. The Starbucks cards also only have about $2-3 on each. The big surprises were the Tim Horton's card - $60.00, Earls - $70.00 and Cineplex - $100.00 - that's a lot of movies. Now we have our spending money for summer entertainment.

I'll have to dig under the sofa cushions and check the washer and dryer, maybe there's more wealth to be found.

June 29, 2010

Remember how I said the office was next? Well I started it. I have cleaned off one bookshelf (the one behind the bedroom door) and I've started uploading all our CD's in to our iTunes account. But it's a tad overwhelming, and I couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel.

So I headed down to tackle the kitchen instead. I had left a note earlier in the week for hubby to clean the kitchen. (A couple of years ago for my birthday, he gave me a bunch of coupons, I thought it was time to redeem this one). But... he didn't quite get to it.

So I cleaned the kitchen. I did make hubby pull out the fridge and stove so he could vacuum and mop behind them.

I'm keeping the coupon to redeem it next time. There isn't a thing about our kitchen that I would change. Hubby should be relieved and pleased about that.

Maybe now that the kitchen is clean, we'll actually cook dinner at home instead of eating out. I'm not making any promises!

What next? Back to the office or on to the dining room? Maybe I'll just hire a cleaner to finish the rest of the house.

June 28, 2010

The last room on the top floor. It's a mess. It houses the office, the spare bedroom, and anything else that doesn't have a home. The floor is covered in stuff, the futon is covered in stuff, the desk is covered in stuff, the books on the bookshelves are covered in stuff, you get the idea.

June 25, 2010

The 2nd bathroom used to pale green the same as the ensuite. But I made hubby paint it a periwinkle blue before my parents and Morag came to stay in February.

BEFORE:

For the last month we've been using the 2nd bathroom as a storage room for cleaning supplies, for hanging wet laundry, and for towels waiting to be washed.

NOW:

My short term plans are to change the ugly brass frames on the Japanese print and the larger print to black frames. As a side note, my father in law once asked why the bathroom was full of naked ladies. The Japanese bathhouse print was a gift from some flat-mates in Tokyo, the large print was a gift from Barb and Stew, and the smaller ceramic tile is from a gift shop in Whistler. I bought it after Stew made the naked ladies comment. I also want to switch out the shower curtain and liner for an all white curtain and liner.

This shower curtain, the white devil would be my first choice. I like the ruffles, and the name - white devil. But... It's $98.00. And even I can't justify $98.00 for a shower curtain.

The longer term plan? Rip out the counter, cupboards and mirror. Put in a darker console unit (that doesn't have the ledge over the toilet) and a smaller mirrored cabinet. Something like this:

or this:

I really want to hang a chandelier in the bathroom. But there's no over head light in there just the wall sconces. Another day maybe.

June 24, 2010

and I'm betting it won't last very long. The hallway drives me insane. That ledge is the perfect place for storing stuff, so it accumulates a lot of crap, A LOT. And then the crap gets knocked off the ledge to the stair case below. The landing at the bottom of the stairs also accumulates stuff.

There isn't a laundry room, we have a stacked washer and dryer in a closet. We have gotten into the habit of leaving the clean laundry on the ledge until we need it, rather than folding it up and putting it away. The laundry is now all folded and in the linen cupboard. The pictures that were at the bottom of the stairs are now hanging on the wall.

AFTER:

I don't like the wall colour of either the hall or the ensuite. The hall is still builders beige, because the logistics of painting it are a nightmare, especially that high end wall. So builders beige it remains.

We painted the ensuite the pale green when we moved in 5 years ago. I liked it then, I still like the colour now, I'm just bored with it. Hubby will roll his eyes when he hears that.

I can't decide what colour I want, so it's going to stay the same for a bit longer. I'd really like to use these Koi tiles from Portland Cement. But I'm not particularly keen on keeping the tile and grout clean. Now if I could find something similar in a wallpaper that might work. Of course I'd then have to find some new lino for the floor as well.

Next up? The second bathroom. Wait until hubby hears what I have planned for that!

June 22, 2010

and clean and tidy. Any bets on how long it will stay that way? I say that by the weekend there will be clothes on the floor, glasses on the bedside tables and the bed won't be made every morning. A couple of before shots. The winter quilt is on the floor, t had been there about 2 or 3 weeks. There is a light weight blanket under the doona cover, not in it.

Those bags on the floor? There's one each from our trip to Florida in April, one each from our trip to the San Juan Islands in May. Plus there is about a months worth of laundry, it has spilled out of the laundry basket and all over the floor. Well, it didn't fall out, we didn't even try to put it in the basket, we just through our clothes on the floor. Our mothers would be so proud of us!

Look, our cupboard doors wouldn't even close. Hubby prefers to store most of his clean clothes on the floor infront of the cupboard. Good thing his clothes are the ironable type, or they'd look awful.

On my side of the bed? Books. What did you expect? And an unpacked bag from our trip to Quesnel. Told you we don't unpack, we just live out of the bag until it's empty.

And now? No crap on the floor. No clothes on the floor. I still need to deal with the books, they moved from the floor to the windowsill. I'll work on that this week. I really like our new summer coverlet thingy. It's bright yellow and I think it looks good against the blue walls. Hubby is not so sure about the flowers but he doesn't get a choice. Besides we needed a break from the striped walls and the striped doona cover.

June 18, 2010

Yep, you read that right. How does one small project turn into such a large one? I was just going to clean up the bedroom, and a week later I'm still cleaning. I've moved onto the dresser. I've washed my swimsuits, thrown out socks with holes in them and the belt where the layers where peeling apart, bleached the white t-shirts so they are white again, sewn buttons that were starting to fall off...

I noticed that some of my bras were nearing the end of their lives. I like shopping. Shopping for shoes, shopping for bags, shopping for chocolate, shopping for books etc etc etc. I hate shopping for jeans, swimsuits and mostly I hate shopping for bras. I've been buying the same style and size bra for years. I just vary the colour.

Might as well do it properly. Trinny and Susannah, Clinton and Stacy and even Oprah all tell us we should wear properly fitting bras. Apparently 80% of women wear ill fitting bras. The wrong fitting bra = back bulge, droopiness, double boobs, boob spillage, the wire digging in, bra riding up, just to name a few.

A bra that is fitted correctly can instantly make it look like you've lost weight. There's a couple of stores here that offer bra fittings. I went to Forever Yours Lingerie in Langley. There's also Diane's Lingerie in Vancouver. That's two I know of, there's probably more.

Turns out, the size I was wearing wasn't far off. Depending on the brand, and the style (full coverage, demi, balconnet or sports bra) I wear one of four different sizes! Means I need to try most bras on before I buy.

So I know own three brand new bras. Two fairly plain neutral coloured bras to wear under t-shirts, and one fun colourful bra to wear under other tops. I still need a new sports bra, and a black bra. Next month. (I'm not putting photos of my boobs on the internet, these are stock photos).